Vent-Axia supports Clean Air Day 2018

Sussex-based Vent-Axia, a leading British ventilation manufacturer, is delighted to support Clean Air Day on 21 June 2018. The day is co-ordinated by environmental charity Global Action Plan and aims to raise awareness of the risks of air pollution and the simple things everyone can do to improve their air quality and health.

Poor air quality is proven to negatively impact on everyone’s health, increasing the risk of serious illnesses and making existing conditions, like respiratory disorders, worse. The purpose of Clean Air Day is to increase understanding of the risks and educate everyone on how to reduce air pollution and improve indoor air quality (IAQ). In the past, the focus was on outdoor air pollution but Clean Air Day aims to highlight the devastating health impacts of poor IAQ too. This growing problem has been recognised in DEFRA’s new Clean Air Strategy as well as recent research on Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) published in Science.

Professor Peter Howarth, University of Southampton said,

“We should look closer to home as this is where we spend most of our time. Indoor air can be more hazardous than outdoor air, particularly for children and the elderly.”

A staggering 65 per cent of homes in the UK suffer from poor IAQ as a result of inadequate ventilation. This is having a significant negative impact on the health of people in their homes with poor IAQ contributing towards many serious health problems such as asthma, lung cancer, strokes and cardiovascular disease.

Jenny Smith, Marketing Manager at Vent-Axia said,

“We are pleased to support Clean Air Day as it continues to raise awareness of the importance of clean air, particularly indoor air quality, and how everyone can make changes to improve their IAQ and their health. The initiative explains that the best way to manage poor IAQ is effective ventilation and at Vent-Axia we are committed to improving IAQ by designing ventilation products that meet the demands of increasingly airtight homes. We are also committed to sharing our knowledge of how ventilation can help protect public health.”

Clean Air Day gives suggestions for a number of quick and easy ways for people to make positive changes to their home and their lifestyle to improve IAQ but that the first key step that should be made is to ventilate effectively. However, ventilation experts warn that opening windows is not an effective or efficient method of ventilating a home and should not be seen as an alternative to a properly installed ventilation system. This is backed up by Professor Hazim B. Awbi, University of Reading, who explains,

“To avoid a serious and significant increase in asthma cases and other health conditions related to poor indoor air quality, homes must be adequately ventilated.”

To help protect health in the home, Vent-Axia has been working hard to provide ventilation solutions to improve IAQ for households. Designed to work with the natural air infiltration, continuous ventilation systems control the air path through the home, removing damaging humidity and pollutants, such as VOCs.

For new builds, Vent-Axia’s Sentinel Kinetic mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system boasts an impressive 94 per cent heat recovery. For private refurbishments, Vent-Axia’s Lo-Carbon Svara offers quiet, disturbance-free running helping ensure good indoor air quality and comfort. Meanwhile the Lo-Carbon Revive has been designed specifically with social housing in mind offering an effective continuous ventilation solution for residents.